- cross-posted to:
- privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- cross-posted to:
- privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Developers of virtual private network (VPN) apps are reporting that their products are again being pulled from Apple’s App Store in Russia. This is an unacceptable crackdown on a vital tool to protect privacy and speech online. Why? VPNs give people a way to control their own online activities. When you visit a website through…
I realize this is Russia spicific but Canada is moving that same way. I luckily am slowly climbing out of the Apple walled garden, my next phone is going to be a pixel so I can install GeapheneOS and use F-Droid as the store, or whatever it is called, so that I can keep my wireguard setup.
Australia, UK, Europe are all doing the same at the moment. Even using a VPN now is a heap more effort already due to VPN blocked websites and apps.
I personally prefer the security of my LAN, it has a Flint 2 running vanilla OpenWRT with lots of vLANs. As much as I believe do not trust your ISP to have your back I have 2 static IP addresses, one was going to host my email and the other would be my internet stuff. I than use wireguard to VPN into my LAN when I am out and about. I have not come across a VPN blocked website, but I have a very finally tuned pihole setup.
I am also not out and about much that I actually see any site that may have a VPN blocking site, but again my pihole is very finally tuned, some times I see the please turn off your ad blocker popup so I find the article published elsewhere, or if it is arstechnica (I think) I still have 98 years or something like that until I can read an article from them.
I also self host a lot of things so it is not like I am worried to much. I read up on my cities transit app and found out how horrible it actually is so I built my own (sorta) it tells me what buses I need to take to get places and it tells me where every operational bus is in the city. I realize it is vibe coded so it needs work, work I will be giving it when I get a new phone as I get out of the Apple Garden.
Awesome work on your setup! Unfortunately for me, that would require an amount of time to learn the missing skills, which I just do not have. So, I am accepting being stuck in my world for now and learning as much as I can going on.
I am eternally grateful for the FOSS community and would be at a loss without many projects, as they allow me to enjoy a lot of services as privately as I reasonably can.